JustSimplySue

Thursday, 3 November 2016

Can't believe it's been 2 years since we last posted. Wow. Time Flies. We are very active on our Facebook page so the blog gets forgotten about. I am going to make an effort to post here more often in the future.

A lot has happened in the two years. Where to start? How about with pigs?! I love pigs. For the past two years we have raised 16 pigs. All were pasture raised in a future garden spot with a commercial feed and lots of fruit and veggie leftovers from our local grocery stores.

We just took the last two to butcher last week and have been enjoying our own home-grown pasture raised pork for a few meals now and it's beyond delicious. It feels really good to know where our food comes from.

We sold 12 of the 16 pigs to others and have had great feedback. We are now officially pig farmers (on a small scale) and very proud. Our pigs were happy and received lots of scritches and scratches and belly rubs. We did do some youtube videos on the pigs if you're interested. My favorite is the one with the fainting pig. You'll have to check it out if you're curious what that means. The link to our YouTube channel is http://www.youtube.com/c/MudPuddleFarm

Besides pigs we still have our turkeys and right now have two breeding pairs of Bronze/Merriam crosses and 8 babies. We are thinking about keeping some more hens from this batch but are not sure yet.

We also built a large mobile chicken layer coop. Ray did an awesome job, mostly by himself, on the build. He built it on an hay wagon so we can pull it around the pasture next summer. It has access to the nesting boxes without disturbing the birds, a large watering set-up and a great no-mess feeder. Oh and he built the roosts so they fold up and there is a door to the outside for easy coop cleaning. It is awesome. We are looking forward to eggs soon and will be selling our farm-fresh, pasture raised eggs by next spring! Very exciting.

So, join us on our Facebook page if you are on there and I promise to be back on the blog more often.

Wednesday, 6 February 2013

I was a little discouraged this morning when I realized that I am still at the same weight again. No weight loss in two weeks and only down 2.5 lbs in a month.

Ok I'll be honest, I was more than a little discouraged. I lost it and had a good cry. I felt sorry for myself for a while too and I still kinda do. But talking to my husband and getting some encouragement on a weight loss forum i follow has helped.

Then I decided to see what 2.5 lbs looks like. And I found the photos below. I especially love the apples! It puts it in perspective. 2.5lbs is a lot.

One thing I do know is that this is 2.5 lbs that I will NEVER have back.

And I will move forward and keep plugging in. I didn't gain so I am ahead. Happy Hump Day!

Tuesday, 29 January 2013

Well it's been a while since I've written. Things have been hectic. I was driving home from one of my personal training sessions when my truck died. I got it restarted and drove a little ways before it died again, restarted it and made it to my driveway before it quit and wouldn't start.
This put a bit of a damper - sarcastic - on going to Red Deer to work out, we live 40 minutes out of town and I can't get in without a vehicle.
Of course we didn't have the money so that's why the delay in reporting anything. Other than walking the dog, doing some weights at home, I haven't done much of my training. I have mostly stuck to my diet.

I am proud to say that through all this stress I didn't gain any weight but actually lost a pound!! So, small victory. I am now back to my workouts with a driving vehicle and back on track.

I met my new trainer today, Kathy. She is awesome, very different from Samantha, but that's ok too. Samantha was more of a cross-circuit trainer and Kathy is a leg and arm day type of trainer. So, now I can't walk, lol, because today was a leg day.

I will try to post a little more regularly from now on. I just finished making a dozen egg muffins for easy quick breakfasts. Organizing my meals with cut up veggies, meat and portion sizes has been fun, and it's what has helped the most on keeping me on track with my food.

Arm day on Thursday so tomorrow will be cardio at home. Thank goodness it's going to be a little warmer tomorrow. -16 instead of -30. Might even be able to walk the dog without either of us freezing.

Saturday, 12 January 2013

Today is the first day I will follow my trainer's nutritional meal plan for all my meals and snacks. I just received it yesterday afternoon and only had supper from it.

Well today I feel like I'm eating sooooo much food. I never ate this much before and I've only gotten through breakfast, lunch and two snacks. I could probably not eat till tomorrow and feel satisfied but I still have dinner left.

Its going to be very hard to get used to the concept that you have to eat more to lose weight. We are ingrained with eat less and move more. So I will be moving more but I will also be eating more. It's more of the right kind of food but it's still more.

Besides food I will be moving more. Yesterday at the gym was the 2nd part of my fitness assessment. I did 9 push-ups (awful!) and 24 crunches (also awful!) and in a timed one minute I did 11 squats (even more awful!!). We will retest this again in 4-6 weeks. I can't wait to move those numbers from awful to something a little more respectful.

You would think with all of this planning and accountability with my trainer I would be set and it would be impossible to fail. Well I hope so and I am certainly going to give it my all. And hopefully in spite of my self esteem issues and laziness I will pull this off!

Thursday, 10 January 2013

Well today I learned what a burpee is. I am not thankful for that knowledge.

I had the first part of my fitness assessment at the gym yesterday, it might have only taken one but we chatted too much. So, I have my second part tomorrow, Friday. My trainer told me to expect to do push-ups, sit-ups, jumping jacks plus I will have to learn how to do bur-pees.

I didn't know what they were so this morning my goal was to Google burpees and find out. This led me to a few YouTube videos and I was shocked with the result. I don't know who came up with this exercise, but I dislike you very much. lol

Wednesday, 9 January 2013

Good morning!

It's beautiful here in Central Alberta this morning. It was so quiet on my morning walk with the dog and a little chilly but not too bad. We are supposed to warm up even more later today.

I weighed myself this morning, it's been a week since I started keeping track of everything and I was very excited, I am down 2.5 lbs. I picked a gym yesterday and I start this afternoon with my personal trainer and I'm excited about that too! Her name is Samantha and the gym is 360 Fitness in Red Deer.I have heard so many good things about this gym and my first visit went very well. It was with Jack, I think he's the owner, he made me feel very comfortable. He didn't even react when I got emotional about my reason for being there. Anyone else ever done that? Tear up a little when you talk about needing to lose weight and why now etc? He just let it go and I got myself under control. He showed me around and it looks like a great place. They even have a sauna!!

One downside I miss hubby and realized today that he still has another 2 weeks and 2 days before he'll be home :( Guess everything can't be going so well. But I will concentrate today on remembering that I lost 2.5 lbs!!!! lol That will keep me in a good mood all day!Hope everyone is having a good Hump Day!

Monday, 7 January 2013

10 degrees colder than yesterday made for a freezing walk this morning. It was very cool when we seen two deer out on the golf course and of course the phone battery was almost dead so I couldn't use the camera. They bolted pretty quick anyway.

It's a new week and I'm looking forward to it. I will have two free consults with personal trainers in Red Deer tomorrow and I hope I pick the right one to whip my butt. I need it! Its very easy to get in to a do-nothing routine when you work from home and spend so much time alone.

My breakfast this morning wasn't very Paleo but it was good and I really enjoyed it. I had an open face fried egg sandwich with ham, laughing cow cheese and mustard plus a mandarin and green tea.

Ray wants me to set up Skype today so that should be fun. It will be nice to be able to see him as well as talk to him.